Rabbi's Message

Machshavot HaRav: Reflections from Rabbi Waxman

The Joys of Searching for a Pine Branch and Citron: Past and Present

For many years, I looked forward to the few days between Yom Kippur and Sukkot. It was during this short window that I drove from my home in New Jersey (Exit 105, off the Garden State Parkway) into Manhattan’s Lower East Side in search of a few lulavim and etrogim for use during the forthcoming holiday. There were vendors stationed outside some of the Jewish bookstores and on nearby streets. The journey into New York was also an opportunity to stop in some of the Jewish bookstores, such as Biegeleisen, which later decamped to Brooklyn, and J. Levine’s, which would eventually move uptown. I also had the pleasure of stopping in Gertel’s bakery, and across the street, Kadouri, which sold dried fruit and various grains out of giant bins. And, of course, there was Gus’s Pickles. It was okay to patronize these last three places, particularly if I brought home some of the goodies, but a visit to Shmulke Bernstein’s famous for kosher Chinese was off-limits, though I could patronize Economy Candy on Rivington, not far from the municipal parking lot and from Bernstein’s. But in time there were fewer and fewer of those Jewish outposts on the Lower East Side and hence fewer and fewer vendors.

And so it was down to Lakewood. Not as much fun.

When I came to Long Island, after a time I discovered that the place to buy these essential items was on Main Street in Queens not far from Jewel Avenue. Sunday night, I drove Sarrae back into the city, but on the way, we stopped on 108^th Street in Queens to shop at a kosher supermarket and Nagilah Market, which sells dried fruit and spices, among other items. Then it was on to Main Street. Heading north from Jewel Avenue there were at least half a dozen young men inquiring if we wanted a set –that is the lulav, the etrog, the myrtle and willow branches--. (And further down the street, where the stores resumed, there were yet even more vendors.) This year the starting price seemed to be $35: buying several sets, we knocked the price down to $30 a set. We even had special delivery: the seller had run out of myrtle branches, and so he called his boss and within a few minutes a car pulled up and someone handed him through the rolled down window a large batch of the branches.

So, what is the big deal about a palm branch, a citron and myrtle and willow branches? The Rabbis pointed to a passage in Leviticus, specifically 23:40, and they saw mention of these 4 items as separate from the construction of a sukkah. One of my favorite rabbinic interpretations of these 4 items is that they represent 4 different kinds of Jews, with varying levels of knowledge and observance. That the mitzvah of shaking the lulav is only fulfilled when these 4 items from the plant kingdom are held together. It should serve as a reminder that as Jews we are better off when we can find opportunities to unite, to join collectively.

Wishing you a Chag Sameach, a joyous holiday, and an early Shabbat shalom.

Thursday, October 17^th Sukkot services in the sanctuary at 10 a.m., followed by kiddush in our sukkah.

Friday night services will be held in our house at 8 p.m., with the Oneg in our sukkah.

Saturday morning services in the sanctuary at 10 a.m., with kiddush in our sukkah.

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Payrush LaParashah: A Comment on the Weekly Torah Portion

The Torah reading for the first day of Sukkot (Thursday, October 17^th) is Leviticus 22:26-23:44. The Maftir reading is Numbers 29:12-16.

23:42 You shall live in booths for seven days; all citizens in Israel shall live in booths, (43) in order that future generations may know that I made the Israelite people live in booths when I brought them out of the land of Egypt, the Lord your God.

23:43 I made the Israelite people live in booths when I brought them out of the land of Egypt As it is made clear with many specifics in research on the divine ark…one must view the sukkah, that an Israelite makes for the festival, similar to the cherubic covering on the ark—in imitation of the sukkah/shelter of the cloud, that the divine is hidden within and rides in it, “on cherubic wings” on the wind. And according to the words of the Torah this is how it moved; the sukkah/shelter of the cloud is the Divine in front of the Israelites in the wilderness. These are the “sukkot/shelters of the clouds of glory” which the early rabbis found in this text. Hence Jews erect sukkot for this festival. As, according to tradition, the rains are judged [at this time of year/ at the end of Sukkot we begin inserting a line in the Amidah about rain], in order to stir up the Divine, that it should enter from its side into the sukkah/shelter of heavenly cloud, in order to bring down from it the rain, which will saturate the thirsty land. (N.H. Tur-Sinai, Peshuto Shel Mikrah: Kerech Aleph [The Clear Meaning of Scripture: Volume One]. Naphtali Herz Tur-Sinai was born in 1886 in Lemberg, then in Galica, part of Austria-Hungary [later Lwow, Poland, and now Lviv, Ukraine]. His original name was Harry Torczyner; he Hebraicized it when he made Aliyah. He was raised in Vienna where he studied at the University of Vienna and the rabbinical seminary. On the basis of his work on accents and vowels in Semitic languages, Torzcyner was appointed in 1910 lecturer at the University of Vienna. However, that very year he decided to go Jerusalem where he was elected to the Va’ad HaLashon, the committee on the language—many years later, he would serve as the organization’s president--, and for a couple of years taught at Gymnasia Rechavia, the recently created secular high school. [During my father’s sabbatical in Israel, I attended this school for 5+ months.] In 1913 he returned to Vienna and from then until 1919 lectured on Semitics at the University. In 1919 he moved to Berlin and taught bible and Semitic philology at the Hochschule fur die Wissenschaft des Judentums, the Reform rabbinical seminary. He moved to Palestine in 1933 and was appointed professor of Hebrew language at the Hebrew University. In addition to his three-volume work on Scripture, he was a contributor to a new Jewish translation of the Bible into German and was the author of several books and many articles. Among his books are The Lachish Letters—1938--, in which he deciphered those First Temple era letters, and Das Buch Hiob, an exposition of the book of Job, which appeared in 1920. Also of note is his three volumes HaLashon VeHasSefer [The Language and the Book], which was published over the course of several years, from 1951-1956. He served as the editor of Leshonenu, Our Language, from 1934-1954, and edited and completed Eliezer ben Yehuda’s monumental Hebrew dictionary. He served as president of the Academy of the Hebrew Language. He rejected the documentary hypothesis and believed that the Bible is a collection of remnants of ancient works that spoke of early times. Often, he proposed textual emendations. Most controversial was his reconstruction of the book of Job, which he maintained was a poor translation of an Aramaic original into Hebrew and he suggested many amendments to reconstruct the original, the majority of which have failed to gain acceptance. He died in 1973.)

The Torah reading for Saturday, October 19^th, Shabbat Chol HaMoed Sukkot (the Sabbath in the middle of Sukkot), is Exodus 33:12-34:16. The Maftir reading is Numbers 29:17-22.

33:17 And the Lord said to Moses, “I will do this thing that you have asked, for you have truly gained My favor and I have you out by name.” (18) He said, “oh, let me behold your Presence!” (19) And He answered, “I will make all My goodness pass before you, and I will proclaim before you the name Lord, and the grace that I grant and the compassion that I show….”

33:19 all My goodness. The benevolent attributes that God manifests in his dealings with His creatures. These are detailed in 34:6-7. The theme of divine goodness is frequently featured in the Bible. In classical rabbinic literature, tov, “the Good One,” and tuvo shel ‘olam¸” the Goodness of the World” are epithets of God. In Bava Metzia 83a the injunction of proverbs 2:20 to “follow the way of the good” is interpreted by Rav to mean that one must act with generosity, beyond the requirements of the strict letter of the law. Ion Mishnah Avot 3:15 (19) Rabbi Akiva asserts that “the world is judged by goodness,” that is by divine grace.

In ancient Near Eastern treaties and in several biblical texts, the term tov bears the technical, legal meaning of covenantal friendship, that is, amity established by the conclusion of a pact. In light of this, it is possible that the present verse also contains an intimation of the renewal of the covenant between God and Israel. (Nahum Sarna, The JPS Torah Commentary: Exodus.  Professor Sarna was born in London in 1923 to a committed Jewish family, who were Zionists. His father was a Jewish bookdealer. Dr.Sarna received his B.A. and M.A. from University College of London and rabbinic ordination from Jews College. He made aliyah in 1949, hoping to pursue his doctorate at the Hebrew University. But in the aftermath of Israel’s War of Independence, the University was not accepting doctoral students and consequently, in 1951 he moved to Philadelphia where he received his Ph.D. from Dropsie College. From 1951 to 1957 he taught at Gratz College. From 1957 to 1965 he served as librarian and associate professor of Bible at the Jewish Theological Seminary. Beginning in 1965, he began a 20-year career at Brandeis, first serving as associate professor from 1965-67 and then the Dora Golding Professor of Biblical Studies from 1967 on. Beginning in 1969, he served as chair of the Near Eastern and Judaic Studies Department. In 1985 he moved to Florida where he taught at Florida Atlantic University. In 1966, he published Understanding Genesis, which was followed 20 years later by Exploring Exodus. His commentary on Genesis for JPS appeared in 1989 and his commentary on Exodus saw the light of day in 1991. 2 years later, in 1993, Shocken published his Songs of the Heart: An Introduction to the Book of Psalms.  In 1996, NYU Press issued his Genesis: World of Myths and Patriarchs and in 2000, JPS issued a collection of his essays, Studies in Biblical Interpretation. It should be noted that he was one of the translators of the Ketuvim, the Writings section of the JPS Bible, and served as the general editor of its Bible Commentary Project. He died in 2005 after a long illness.)

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Questions for Sukkot 5785 (Leviticus 22:26-23:44)

1.Offer a rationale for the commandment in 22:28.

2.What other offering is specifically forbidden to eat the next day?

3. Should the ban on work on Shabbat have been included in this festival calendar? Where else does the phrase Shabbat shabbaton, a sabbath of complete rest, appear?

 4.Relative to other biblically mandated holiday observances, what is unique about Passover?

5.Some wheat products bear the label “yashan”. How does this relate to verse 23:14? 

6. Which group of Jews concluded that “the day after the Sabbath”, mentioned in 23:15 was the first Sunday of Pesach?

7. Aside from the rituals prescribed for the priest, are there any rituals prescribed for the layman during Shavuot?

8. Why in the midst of a list of holiday observances is there mention of supporting the poor?

9. What word in the short section of the first day of the 7^th month hints at a Rosh HaShanah ritual?

10. What was to be the fate of one who didn’t practice “self-denial” on Yom Kippur?

11. Compare Nehemiah 8:15: “Go out to the mountains and bring leafy branches of live trees, pine, trees, myrtles, palms and [other] leafy trees to makes booths” with our passage Leviticus 23:40 and 42. Some Karaite scholars believe that the fruit of the goodly tree refers to the olive tree and not the etrog tree: are they more on target than the rabbinic practice?

12. Does the Torah ever mention the Israelites living in booths during the 40 years in the wilderness?

Questions for the Haftorah (Zechariah 14:1-21)

1. When did Zechariah live? In verse 1 is he describing a forthcoming battle or an apocalyptic era battle?
2. What is an approximate date for the earthquake mentioned in verse 5? Where else is this earthquake mentioned in the Bible?
3. Where is verse 9 found in the prayerbook?
4. The ending of which Indiana Jones movie seems to be taken from verse 12?
5. What would be the consequence of failing to make pilgrimage to Jerusalem during Sukkot?
6. Why does Egypt get special mention? What would its fate be if it failed to make pilgrimage to Jerusalem for Sukkot?
7. Originally what was the one object that was to bear the phrase “holy to God”?

Questions for Shabbat Chol Hamoed Sukkot 5785 (Exodus 33:12-34:26)

1.Why does Moses add in verse 13 the phrase “that this nation is you people?”

2. What does God offer in terms of a personal revelation?

3. In verse 18, Moses ask to see God’s Presence. In the following verse, God says “his goodness” would pass before Moses. Are the two terms synonymous?

4. Verse 11 says that God spoke to Moses “face to face. In verse 23 God offers only His back. Explain.

5. Why two tablets? Was the second tablet to serve as a “carbon copy?” Was carrying two tablets up the mountain a punishment for smashing the first set?

6.Verse 34L6-7 are used liturgically. When? What is omitted from their usage? Where else in the Bible do all or parts of these verses appear?

7. Do the verse following the 13 attributes in verse 5-7 constitute an alternative Ren Commandments?

8.Did God live up to His end of the covenantal relationship? What duties imposed on Israel headed the list? Is this surprising>

9. How is Sukkot described? Who was liable to be in attendance for the festival?

10. Why the assurance at the end of verse 33:24?

11. If we link the final prescriptions with the festivals, what is the principal observance linked to Sukkot and why?

Questions for the Haftorah (Ezekiel 38:19-39:16)

1. Why was this portion selected as the haftorah for this Shabbat?
2. Who was Gog and who or where was Magog? Where were Meshech and Jubal?
3. The opening two words of 38:23 appear in modified form in what very familiar prayer?
4. What is surprisingly absent in the description of the left-over weapons?
5. What was required of Israel after the defeat of Gog?
6. Was this prophecy given before or after the fall of the Temple?